Of Ghost Boys and Thermoses
by CarleySap
Summary: The members of the Wright family aren't always dense, and eventually pick up on Spencer's talking to Billy. They decide to send him to stay with family out-of-state for a while, and that family happens to be the Fentons. Will eventually be a lot of Danny/Billy interaction, training and such.
1. Prologue

"Hey broseph, we gonna hit the WiFri today?" Spencer Wright was stopped on his way out of the school building as his ghostly friend floated in front of him.

Spencer looked to around quickly to make sure no one was near him, before returning his gaze to his friend. "I dunno. Rajeev and Shinella are both out sick today, so we could probably just go back to the house, right? Besides, I have an essay due in like, two days." He started walking again, and this earned a pout from the older of the two.

"Yeah, but I'm really in the mood for some snackage, and your parents don't keep anything good around the house. It's a dishonor to the legacy of my refrigerator." He crossed his arms over his chest, pout fading a little as he floated in front of Spencer once more.

The brunette laughed a little and rolled his eyes. "Alright dude, we'll go to the WiFri. Just don't make an order that makes me look like I'm eating for ten this time." As he reached the end of the school's courtyard, he turned onto the sidewalk in the direction of the popular food chain.

Billy returned his arms to their usual position, dangling at his sides, and spoke in an accomplished tone. "Sweet. The Cobra needs his nourishment, though." His eyebrows lifted as he smirked at the younger boy, who only rolled his eyes.

"You don't need nourishment, you're a ghost."

* * *

"Jessica honey, do you know where your brother is? It's getting late, and I can't find him anywhere in the house," Jane Wright called into her daughter's room, where she was greeted by a tight fist stopping just before her face upon opening the door. Sometimes she thought Jessica practiced _too _much.

The girl lowered her hand and relaxed. "How should I know? It's not my job to keep track of my _older _brother," When Jane didn't respond, she shrugged as she said, "Try that WiFri place or something. I think he goes there with that annoying friend of his a lot."

The redhead smiled as she gave a "Thanks, Jess," before brushing her daughter's hair, which had fallen loose from her ponytail, behind her ear and sliding the door shut. A minute later she was sitting in the family's old car, listening to the engine roar to life. Once the slight sputtering had reduced to a steady purr, she pushed a button to open the garage door and rolled the car out onto the street. Twisting the wheel to align herself on the road, she made her way to the restaurant her son spent his time at.

Upon arriving, she couldn't see Spencer. Not until she entered and walked around a little bit, when she found him sitting on a couch that was tucked into a corner of the building, laughing at an unknown source. He moved his lips like he was talking to someone, but she didn't see any person where he was looking.

"Hey Spencer, who are you talking to?" He jumped at her words, obviously not having noticed her. His eyes flicked from her to the place they were focused on previously for a moment, before he made up his mind.

"Uh, no one. I mean, I wasn't talking. I was just laughing because I remembered something funny Rajeev told me the other day." He blinked. "Anyway, what's up? Did something happen, normally you just call if you want me to come home."

She raised her eyebrows a bit, recognizing the way he was speaking from several other times she had asked him if he was talking with anyone. "No no, nothing happened, aside from your sister almost punching me in the face," she chuckled. "It was just getting late, and Hugh started dinner, and you weren't answering when I called."

"Oh, uh, sorry mom, I hadn't noticed you called me," He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and winced as he noticed the 3 MISSED CALLS in bold print staring back at him.

"Oh man macabroni, you're screwed," came the teasing invisible voice from behind the boy. He glowered at the other for a moment before his eyes returned to his mother once more.

"I guess I forgot to turn it off of silent after school, heh…"

"Oh, it's fine, Spencer," she replied, offering a hand which he took, allowing her to pull him up. She bit her lip for a bit, thinking before adding a second half to the sentence. "And, are you sure you weren't talking to anyone? I could have sworn I saw you saying something."

He immediately shook his head, in a way that almost looked trained. "Nah, you must have imagined it. Now, should we start home?" After smiling at Jane, he began to make his way towards the door, followed closely by his mother.

Once they were half way home, no one had said anything. "Uh mom, are you okay? You're normally more talkative than this in the car."

She glanced at him in the mirror hanging off the car's ceiling. "Oh yeah, of course." Looking back to the road, she spoke again. "Honey, Principal Ponzi has been telling your father and me that's he's… Worried. About you."

The teenager snorted. "Mom, Ponzi's not worried about me. He just wants to ruin my life." A few seconds later, he suppressed a laugh at something that was inaudible to Jane.

"Honey, he's your principal. He doesn't want to ruin your life; it's his job to make it better." She pretended not to hear Spencer's disheartened mumbling. "He says you haven't been paying much attention in class, and that sometimes he sees you talking to yourself."

She noticed the dusky-haired boy lift his head at those words, before lowering it to the position it was in before and lifting his eyes instead. "Mom, he's like, crazy. He's probably making it up." His hand reached for the back of his head, but he pulled it into his lap again when he noticed what he was doing.

"He thinks it might be the pressure of living in Hollywood. We did move here pretty unexpectedly and right after Billy's death, too. I understand if you're anxious."

Spencer's shoulders stiffened before his reply left his lips. "Mom, I'm not stressed out about living here! Sure, I mean, I don't have as many friends as I did in our old town or anything, but it's not like everyone hates me. That's really just Lolo and Cleat, but they hate everyone who isn't popular. Besides, I have two great friends." To himself, he had to admit that Rajeev wasn't the best friend he could ask for at times, but he could always but Billy in that spot instead. His mom just didn't have to know that.

She drove in silence once more a bit before giving Spencer one more short sentence. "He suggested transferring you somewhere else temporarily."

At this, the boy straightened and his eyes went wide. "What? Mom, you can't honestly be thinking of transferring me! We just moved here less than a year ago. If you're worried I'm stressed out, at least give me some time to adjust!" His face morphed into that of a worried child, and it was even more so for the face only one person in the vehicle could see.

"Brozart, you can't move somewhere else! What about me? I'm not so sure I trust your family to be in my house alone for more than a couple hours," The boy who said this was sitting as sloppily as possible; leaning back with his legs laying over the driver's seat chair, where Jane occasionally moved through them as she shifted in her seat. Not wanting said driver to think he's any crazier than she no doubt did, Spencer only mustered a tiny shrug in response.

A small sigh came from the woman behind the wheel. "I don't want to force you to move again, not so soon, but Mr. Ponzi has convinced me that it might be a good idea. Besides, I still have family in this nice little town I used to live in. They have kids and a guest bedroom, so I'm sure they wouldn't mind you staying with them for a while."

Spencer slumped into his cushioned seat once more, folding his arms over his chest. "But… What about my friends?"

"They'll be fine without you. And you can keep in touch through texting, right?"

A groan, not as small as the sigh from the front, echoed from the car's back. He hitched up his shoulders again and looked down, but said nothing.

* * *

One week and multiple pleading sessions later, Spencer found himself stepping out of a car into the "nice little town" his mom was from. Looking up, he could see a sign labeled** AMITY PARK- A nice place to live!** Which had what looked like a burnt hole in between the c and e in "nice." Well, at least whoever designed the billboards for this town had a decent sense of humor, if nothing else.

A slender redhead, not-so-slender blonde, and much shorter black-haired girl followed him in their exit of the car. "Funny, I don't remember the advertising design being so strange," Jane crooned, following Spencer's gaze.

"Well son, we're going to head inside. Take your time; we want you to feel as comfortable as possible before meeting the people you'll be staying with!" The blonde man, Hugh, chirped. On their way inside, he patted Spencer on the head, causing the teenager to flinch and squint one eye. At the same time, the youngest of the bunch stuck out her tongue and laughed a little before following.

Spencer waited until the rest of the family had entered the large, obnoxious building in front of him before turning around. "Well, this looks like it'll be interesting." The voice came from the boy he had turned to, who was now hovering in front of him. "Did they really need to put that huge FentonWorks sign on there? It's so, clashy, with the rest of the building. And the rest of the town. Maybe the world. Think I could do some redecorating while we're here?" He smirked and moved his gaze to the other boy on speaking the last few words.

His shoulders shook a bit as he laughed, "I don't think that would be the best idea. I'm glad I convinced you to come along though, this place would probably be boring as heck if I was on my own."

"Well, there is the fact that it's supposed to be a ghost hotspot."

"I'm sure that's just a tourist trap, Billy. I mean, we know you can only see ghosts if you're wearing some of their stuff. So, unless Minotaur lives here, I'm pretty sure it's faked," Came the lighthearted reply. Billy opened his mouth to say something, but moved his focus to farther down the road.

As Spencer turned to see what he was looking at, there was a slight movement in the shadows behind FentonWorks- or, the house- and a quick flash of light. "Whoa Niagbro Falls, you see that?"

"Yeah I did!" A grin grew on the boy's face as he spoke. "Maybe this won't be such an uninteresting time after all, we've already got a mystery to solve," he said jokingly as he hunched forwards and wiggled his fingers.

"Ha, yeah. I just hope it's not anything serious, I mean it's probably just some thing that's normal around here that we don't know about." The ghost shifted into a position that mocked standing, now hovering only a couple inches off the ground. "We should head inside before your family flips."

The younger's only reply was a nod and to begin walking. As he opened the door, the two were greeted by the familiar family, along with a woman who bore a striking resemblance to Jane- minus the blue jumpsuit, - a bulky man- also in a jumpsuit, what was up with that? - and two children, one tall girl with a similar hair color to the adult women, and a boy who looked a bit like Spencer, but shorter and with darker hair. Glancing at the boy's shirt, Spencer was glad he hadn't worn his favorite shirt- the white one with the red ghost on it- because the other boy's was similar to that, as well; it had replaced the ghost with a simple oval and moved the red from the sleeves to the collar.

Spencer smiled at the boy, who looked about his age, but the eyes under the dark hair were transfixed on the spot above his shoulder where his ghostly friend hovered.


	2. Chapter 1

"Uh, hey. I'm Spencer Wright. Though, you probably know that already," Spencer laughed, briefly following Danny's eyes before deciding it was simply coincidence and looking back to the family. "Are we in the same grade?"

Danny looked down to the brown-haired boy before his stare moved to his family, to Billy, and back to Spencer again. One eye closed as the meaty hand of his father hit him on the back, knocking him forward slightly before he found his balance. "You sure are! Maddie and I even took the liberty of putting the two of you in the same homeroom class!" Came the booming, overly-peppy voice.

This was followed by a chuckle from the younger Fenton. "Yeah, you're gonna _love _ Mr. Lancer. He's a real hoot," The sarcasm lacing his voice made it painfully obvious that Mr. Lancer was not a fun teacher. "He's also the vice principal of the school."

Spencer's smile returned as he let out a laugh following Danny's. "Trust me, I'm sure he's better than my old principal." He laughed again as he thought of all the things Ponzi had done to get him kicked out of the school, up until the point where he finally succeeded simply by talking to his mom.

Danny fell silent again and Spencer noticed a slightly weary look on his face. He looked over to Billy, who was making a big show of being bored, but otherwise just floating there, before deciding he was only imagining it.

"Well Spencer, I'm sure you wanna get used to being here without us being in your way, and your sister has a karate tournament tomorrow. We're gonna head back home, if that's ok with you, Maddie," Jane stepped forward from her place behind Jack to drop a hand on Spencer's shoulder.

"Aw, it's too bad you can't stay longer Jane," Maddie answered, wrapping her sister is a tight hug. "It's been too long since we saw each other." Jane nodded in agreement as she pulled herself out of the hug.

"Well Wright family, I guess that means it's time for us to head out," Hugh was now standing next to the rest of his family. Turning to Spencer, he continued, "We'll see you whenever. Don't forget to call us sometimes!"

"Yeah, yeah," Came the short reply as the boy remembered exactly the situation he was in. He looked to Billy, only to see that he appeared to have dozed off. Talk about a short attention span.

After each parent gave a quick hug to the boy who was staying behind, the three turned to leave for the car. Spencer sat down on one of his bags as his sister taunted "Spencer's not coming home because he's crazy~"

"I'm not crazy, Jessica. Ponzi is." He replied, voice thick with annoyance and muffled by the hands that his face rested in. Jessica said nothing else, deciding instead to simlpy skip out the door and close it rather loudly.

Spencer looked back to the family he would now be staying with to see the two younger faces staring at him, one expressing curiosity, the other some blend of confusion and worry. He took his hands away from his face and straightened his back. "Ugh, don't listen to her. She's just one of the many people who have their minds set of ruining my life at the moment."

"I know we don't exactly know each other yet, but if there's anything you want to talk about, you can come to me," This was the first Spencer had heard of the teenage redhead. She had a book under her left arm, from what he could see it appeared to be on psychology, or something along those lines. He actually couldn't see past the "phsyc," for all he knew it could have been about psychopaths. But going by her speech, the former was more likely.

"Uh, thanks, but no thanks. There's nothing to talk about," He pronounced, leaning back a bit as a sleeping Billy's foot brushed past his face. "And if you meant Jessica, she's my sister. She's supposed to try to ruin everything for me."

"C'mon Jazz, don't freak him out with your weird therapy before he even gets his stuff inside, or you might end up worse than dad to him. At least mom's keeping him at bay for now," Danny added, the last part barely audible.

Spencer looked behind him to the Fenton parents, one of which was barely standing still and eating a cookie. That's weird, but not that bad, he though. "Yeah, um, what's wrong with your dad, though?" The question was almost as quiet as Danny's statement about the man, as not to let him hear.

"He's a bit of a..." Jazz looked behind her and to Danny, before they finished the sentence together, "Ghost fanatic."

This caught Spencer's attention. "Ghosts?" Came the question, not really directed at anyone in particular, and he noticed once more that Danny's eyes were locked onto the sleeping form of his cousin.

"Did someone say ghosts?" Jack looked up from the cookie in his hand, interest sparking on his face. He looked at the cookie again, popping it into his mouth, before stepping towards the younger group. Danny and Jazz both groaned in annoyance. "Hey Spence, I bet you didn't know Maddie and I are ghost hunters! I could blather on about them for hours!"

"Ghost... hunters?" Spencer's voice cracked on the last part. Normally he wouldn't worry and would pass it off as a joke, but he was reminded of the last time him and Billy had encountered a ghost "hunter." If not for his shape shifting ability, Minotaur might have actually taken Billy down.

"The town's best! In fact, we have a portal to the Ghost Zone in our basement! Hey, you know what, lemme go grab the thing I'm working on right now. I'm not exactly sure what it's gonna do yet, but I'm sure that it-"

"Honey, I'm sure Spencer's tired after driving all the way here. Maybe we should let him unpack his stuff and go to bed; Danny and Jazz need to get to sleep too. It is a school night." Maddie placed a hand on her husband's shoulder to stop his blabbering.

A pout crossed the man's face as he looked at Maddie. "Yeah, I guess... But hey, there's always tomorrow!" He turned to Spencer again as she removed her hand. "You need any help unpacking?"

The boy quickly stood up and grabbed his bags. "Uh, no thanks, I'm good, you guys just go do, uh, whatever it is you were doing before I got here," He said hurredly as he shuffled his things around under his arms to get a better grip. "My room's at the end of the upstairs hallway, right? Mom told me on the way here."

"Yeah. You sure you don't want any help with your bags?" A smirk crossed Danny's face as he watched the other boy fumble with his things.

He nodded, almost dropping a backpack in the process. "Yeah, I'm good." He purposefully tripped to the left a little on his way to the staircase, his head passing through Billy's sleeping form and successfully startling him awake.

"Huh? Bromix, what's goin' on?" Billy had jumped as Spencer walked through him, but straigtened himself as he spoke. Spencer only kept walking, so he followed, casting a glance back at the slightly confused family they were leaving behind.

"So uh, what was up with that Brojangles?" They had been in the guest bedroom dubbed Spencer's room for about 3 minutes when Billy asked the question.

Spencer put the last of his clothes in the closet and stepped out, making the old door's hinges squeak as he closed it. "Well... Apparently, the whole 'ghost hotspot' thing wasn't just hype. And apparently, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton are ghost hunters."

Billy stood from where he was sitting on the recently-made bed. "Ghost hunters? What?" He stayed in place for a few moments before rushing to Spencer and wrapping his arms around him. "But I don't wanna die!"

Wincing, Spencer pushed the ghost away. "Calm down Miss American Diva, you're not gonna 'die'. Seriously, they had no clue you were even here, so I doubt they're the _best_ ghost hunters." He stopped for a moment, thinking of the boy who had his eyes locked on Billy.

Said ghost melted to the ground, sniffling. "Yeah, I guess you're right..."

"Alright dude, it's like, 11 pm. I'm gonna hit the hay for school tomorrow." He paused before flicking off the light. "Oh, are you coming with me?"

Billy shot up from the ground, no longer looking like some mess of a puddle. "Well yeah! Do you really expect me to stay in the house of ghost hunters by myself?"

Spencer's only reply was a laugh and a shake of the head. Pulling the short cord on the lamp residing on a small table next to his bed, he sent the room into darkness.


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Ah a sorry this took so long, but finals are a think that are happening (I should actually be studying right now but)

Thanks a bunch to everyone who's said they like it so far ;u; you guys are all great

* * *

The next morning went by surprisingly fast for Spencer, given his distaste for his current situation. He woke up quite a bit earlier than necessary, due to time zone differences (and not without complaint from Billy.) By the time he managed to actually drag himself downstairs, however, Danny had already left. Maddie had said he left early sometimes to meet up with his friends and talk for a while before school, and she couldn't convince him to wait.

Breakfast was a simple bowl of dry cereal; luckily with minimal questioning to how he ate it so fast (half of it had gone to Billy. Just because he didn't _need_ to eat, didn't mean he didn't do it anyway.) It was good the two ate so fast, as both boys were questioning the safety of the elders of the house tinkering with their ecto weapons at the table, and not just for Billy.

Spencer had his backpack shoved into his arms and was swept into Jazz's car practically the same second his bowl made it to the sink. The Fenton sister claimed her parents were "going to scar him for life with their crazy obsession," if they didn't seriously injure him first. The drive to the school was a short one, and the only real conversation made was a flurry of apologies and "it's okay"s, before Jazz was reduced to mumbling about things Spencer couldn't make out.

"You've got Mr. Lancer homeroom and first period, but I got him to agree to get a sub and show you around the school during that time," Jazz said as they walked into the school building. "He should be waiting for you in the main office, which is straight that-a-way."

Spencer followed where her thumb was pointing with his eyes to see a short hallway, the end of which was decorated with a sign labeled **OFFICE**. He nodded, mumbling a thanks, before being swept almost off his feet by Billy.

As soon as Jazz was gone, and the hallway was mostly empty, the ghost spoke up. "Brotoshop, what if this guy's as whack as Ponzi?" He paused for a second, but when Spencer opened his mouth to reply a huge grin formed on his face and he continued. "Want your best bro to give him what's his, ghost style?" He brought his hands to his face, wiggling his fingers.

The teenager smiled at his cousin's gesture. "Dude, I doubt that'll be necessary. Danny said he was annoying, but I doubt he's as freaky as Ponzi." He paused for a second, continuing to walk, then, "I doubt _anyone's _as freaky as Ponzi."

Pouting for a moment, Billy started to float alongside Spencer again and shrugged. "Alright, whatever you say broster strudel."

Arriving at the office, the boys were greeted by the sight of who could only have been Mr. Lancer, leaning back in his chair and staring at his computer screen. When he heard Spencer clear his throat, he jumped, quickly clicking out of the game that was open on the monitor. "Ah, hello," he said, straightening his dark tie and sitting up.

"Uh… Hi." Spencer held back a laugh at the teacher's behavior, wondering what he could have been doing. "Um, I'm Spencer Wright, I just transferred here," his eyes moved to the bronze plaque on the edge of the desk. "And I guess you're Mr. Lancer?"

"Ah yes, Mr. Wright." The older man stood and walked around the desk, reaching out a hand which Spencer took in a shake. "I suppose Jasmine has already informed you that you will be with me instead of class for first period?"

Spencer nodded, returning his hand to his pocket.

Lancer began to make his way out of the small room, turning to the boy as he did. "Well come on then, we might as well get started."

"Right."

* * *

They were in the process of returning to Mr. Lancer's office when a resounding _crash_ came from down the hall. Startled, all three turned to the source of the noise, Billy squeaking and jumping behind Spencer.

"I… What?" was all Spencer could manage to say to what he was seeing. There were two characters at the end of the hall- one a teenage boy, with white hair, green eyes, and a black and white suit; the other clad in a metal suit with a flaming green mohawk on the top. And both of them were semi-transparent, glowing, and floating. "Are those… Ghosts?" He asked, slightly shocked to see them throwing balls of ectoplasm at one another.

Lancer sighed, rubbing his temple. "Yes. Staying with the Fentons, I'm sure you've heard about the regular ghost attacks here, but you probably didn't believe they were real. We should get outside." He grabbed the boy's hand as he turned towards the exit, barely noticing the bit of added weight of the ghost clinging desperately to the boy.

They arrived outside and made their way across the front yard, where much of the school was already gathered. Once Lancer was satisfied with their placement, Spencer spoke up. "So, was that ghost with the white hair Phantom?" He recalled hearing Mr. and Mrs. Fenton talking about him and how they wanted to rip him apart, molecule by molecule, at breakfast this morning.

"I suppose you would have heard at least of him by now. Yes, and the ghost he was fighting is called Skulker, I believe." Lancer looked down at the short boy. "I'm terribly sorry that you have to endure a ghost attack on your first day here. This must be very shocking for you."

Spencer laughed a little, thinking about how he shared a room with a ghost. "Actually, I think it's pretty awesome. The whole idea of a ghost-fighting superhero who's also a ghost? If that's not cool, I don't know what is." Suddenly remembering Billy's last encounter with another ghost, which had ended up with him stuffed in the freezer, he turned around to see if his friend was okay. Letting out a gasp, he frantically scoured the grounds with his eyes, ready to walk off to search for Billy until his thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Lancer.

"Mr. Wright, is something the matter?" He had a worried gaze on the boy. "If this is too much for you, I can allow you to go home."

Spencer winced as he realized how freaked out he must look- and how much he was starting to actually freak out. It was possible that Billy had simply run away, but Spencer doubted he'd want to be on his own during something like this. Billy was kind of a huge baby. "Uh, no, I just think I might've dropped something important. Could I go inside and get it? I don't wanna lose it."

Lancer widened his eyes at the boy's request. "The Outsiders, are you crazy? We're in the middle of a ghost-" he was interrupted by Phantom flying past, carrying the recently-used thermos. He sighed. "Well, we w_ere_ in the middle of a ghost attack. I suppose if you dropped something, you should get back in before everyone else-"

"Thanks Mr. Lancer!" Another interruption as Spencer ran opposite to Phantom. He felt like someone was looking at him as he headed towards the school, but saw no one when he turned his head. Even Phantom had left the clearing, leaving only an annoyed and confused Mr. Lancer and students shuffling back into the building as it started to rain.

He pushed his way through the crowd, shrugging off the feeling of being watched. He looked around frantically, hoping to spot the blue, much more friendly than those who were resident here, ghost. Not seeing any sign of Billy, he decided to head towards the gymnasium. If Mr. Lancer had been correct earlier, there were no P.E. classes going on at the moment. It was possible Billy was hiding there somewhere; he seemed to have an preference for hiding in closets.

However, when he reached the large room, it was completely empty. Not even the teacher, Mrs. Tetzlaff, had returned yet. Spencer sighed in resignation, turning to exit the room again. Billy would find him eventually, and if he didn't, he'd probably go back home- or rather, back to FentonWorks. If he wasn't too scared of the ghost hunters residing in that building, that is.

An explosion followed by a short scream interrupted Spencer's thoughts. Gasping, he whipped around just in time to see a ball of green hit the ground just outside the gymnasium's window, and two feet clad in faded red high tops disappear from view.

"Billy!" The name shot past his lips as he ran across the room- the floor of which had been recently waxed, if the way he slipped around was anything to go by- and slammed open the heavy door.

"Spence!" The voice came from a tangle of stretched-out limbs in a nearby tree, which quickly unwrapped themselves from the branches. As soon as the floating boy was free, he began flying full-speed at the other, planning to begin using Spencer as his hiding place instead.

His path was soon blocked as Phantom, who's focus had previously been on the boy who had made the duo a trio, positioned himself directly in front of Billy.

"Tsk tsk, don't you know it's rude to attack visitors?" He pulled another metal can in front of Billy- apparently he had two thermoses on him, as the battered one that could easily be recognized to be containing Skulker still rested on a strap- and began to unscrew the cap. "I was planning on using this for something else, but I don't think anyone deserves to be stuck in a can with Skulker for six hours." His thumb hit a button, and before Billy could react, he was being sucked into a beam of light, and then entrapped in the smallest place he'd ever been in.

Phantom sighed as he buckled the second thermos back to his belt, where it clanged against the one containing Skulker. He floated a bit closer to Spencer, keeping his eyes on the boy, who was too shocked to really do anything. Phantom appeared to be thinking about something else, but that look was wiped off his face as he spoke. "You okay, Sp- er, kid?" A worried grin crossed his face.

The words shook Spencer out of his trance, but he still found himself unable to form words properly. "I- you just- Billy-" His hand rose to his head, which he quickly shook in an attempt to clear it.

Before either boy could say anything else, a loud buzzing found its way to their ears. "Ugh. Make that five hours. Uh, I gotta go." Phantom said, speaking quieter for the first part and pointing a thumb in a direction that he made sure was not the school. He stopped himself as he started to turn away to say "And uh, you probably should too. Class and stuff. Though, I haven't seen you before, so you're probably new here, and I dunno if you'll have to stay in class after the ghost attack. But uh, yeah, we should probably both… Go." He bit his lip, wincing at the pitiable attempt to talk to Spencer. After looking at the boy for a few more moments- who still had a befuddled expression on his face, unable to get words out of his mouth- he simply disappeared.

The human boy remained where he was, even as the chill in the air vanished. He was still trying to sort out what had just happened when the doors behind him opened.

"Mr. Wright, there you are. I thought you said you were looking for something you had dropped, what in blazes are you doing out here?" The teacher's voice caught Spencer's attention, causing him to rotate and once again attempt to form a proper sentence.

"I was, uh, Phantom…" He mentally winced at his inability to speak coherently.

The older man simply stared at him, eyes shifting as he deciphered the boy's words in his head. "Paper Towns Spencer, was there another ghost back here?" He briskly walked down the steps outside of the door until he was in front of Spencer.

"Uh… Yeah, there was," He replied sheepishly, shoulders lifting as he moved his hands to his pockets.

Worry shined in the teacher's eyes as he looked down at the boy, who wasn't meeting his eyes. "I'm sorry, it's your first day attending Casper and already you've been shoved right in the middle of a ghost battle. I'm not sure it would be in your best interest to stay; I have Jazz drive you home if you'd like. She doesn't have any classes this period anyway, and she doesn't really need to sit around filing papers for teachers."

Spencer was about to protest, but stopped himself to think. He was staying in the house with the ghost portal in the basement. The Fentons had told him that Phantom didn't kill the ghosts he fought, so to speak, but returned them to the Ghost Zone. Assuming that was a real place, he would have to use their portal to get the ghosts there. Which means there was a chance Spencer could catch him before he let Billy out of the thermos, and explain to him that it was just a misunderstanding.

He smiled a bit, trying not to show the hope and worry that were now tumbling around inside of him on his face. "Yeah, I think that would probably be a good idea. 'Cause, it's not exactly like I'm used to ghosts, or anything."

The balding man nodded, placing a hand on Spencer's back as he began to walk towards the school once more. In the next ten minutes, they had located the Fenton sister, explained the situation, and Spencer had gotten in the small blue car with her.

The ride home was mostly questions from Jasmine, about what had happened ("I dropped something and walked in on a fight,") what ghost it was ("Some blue guy,") if he was okay ("I'm fine,") and so on. But Spencer wasn't really paying attention, and Jazz could tell. His focus was on Billy, and how he was going to convince Phantom to let him go.

But soon his time for planning was over and FentonWorks was in view. Jazz stopped the car outside of the building, speaking before Spencer could open the door.

"Mom and dad aren't home; they're at some paranormal convention-type thing and won't be home 'till 10. You want me to stay here with you?" She asked, turning to face the car's other occupant and resting an elbow on the back of her seat.

Spencer shook his head. "Nah, I'll be fine," he replied as he popped the car door open.

"Are you sure? Getting stuck in the middle of a ghost attack like that can be a very traumatic experience. I don't want you to have to get over it alone." The girl leaned backwards further as Spencer jumped out of the vehicle and onto the grass.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I'll be fine." He closed the door and waved to the front seat, wanting to get down to the lab as soon as possible.

He could see Jazz's confusion displayed on her features as a muffled "Well, okay," came through the window. As soon as the car began to leave, Spencer turned and ran to the door, pulling out the key he had been given before they had even left the school.

The second he was inside and the door had been re-locked, he made his way down the hall to the metal stairs. The door at the bottom was locked (presumably to make sure no one ended up getting into the house and stealing any equipment,) but Spencer figured it would be just as good to wait outside.

After half an hour of sitting against the cold metal, he knew he must have missed Phantom's drop off. Sighing, he lifted himself to his feet and began up the stairs again. He did the same with the stairway leading to the second floor of the house, opening the door to the guest bedroom.

An old wooden chair was pulled back as Spencer flopped down into it, opting to mess around on the internet instead until he could find a way to get Billy back. Maybe when Danny and Jazz's parents got home, he could convince them to let him into the Ghost Zone.

Having headphones on, he didn't hear as the front door creaked open then slammed shut, nor did he hear the feet that ran down metal steps and straight through the door.


End file.
